Reviews for Anna on the farm

The average rating for Anna on the farm based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-10-04 00:00:00 Robert Jiles Now the sequel to Mary Downing Hahn's sweetly delightful Anna All Year Round (and once again loosely but truthfully based on the childhood of the author's mother Anna Sherwood in and around Baltimore during the early early years of the 20th century) most definitely is considerably less episodical and anecdotal in both scope and feel. And while some readers might actually well tend to enjoy and appreciate the more specific and one single plot driven and derived narrative of Anna on the Farm (although there are of course still ample small and engagingly informative, entertaining anecdotes and episodes of in particular early 20th century farming life into which one can sink one's reading pleasure teeth), I for one must say that while I have indeed found Anna on the Farm an enjoyable and diverting reading interlude, I certainly much much do prefer Anna All Year Round and precisely due to the fact that the plethora of oh so many depicted and described small and sometimes not even all that linked and connected episodes of Anna All Year Round have felt and continue to feel considerably more intriguing, more interesting and sustaining to me on a personal level than reading about Anna's one week on her uncle and aunt's farm (and also tend to give me a more complete general portrait of Anna Sherwood, her family and her life in early 20th century America). For indeed, although generally speaking and for the most part Anna on the Farm is an evocative and entertainingly enjoyable novel of fun, whimsy and historical, cultural background information, for one I kind of feel as though I am only really getting to see one part of Anna Sherwood this time around, in other words I guess that I to a certain point resent that I am only reading about her week on her uncle's farm, entertaining perhaps, but I kind of do want a bit more than just information and details on Anna's rural adventures and escapades (even though the title does, I realise, specifically show this to be the case). And for two, while I do much appreciate that by the end of Anna on the Farm, Anna and Theodore have ironed out their differences and animosities and have become the best of friends, their rather constant bickering and nastiness towards one another when Anna first arrives on the farm (and that it does take almost half of the novel, that it takes almost half of Anna on the Farm for Anna and Theodore to become a bit more simpatico and less prickly) really does end up being a trifle monotonous and trying (although yes, I do applaud and cheer Anna for standing up for herself and paying Theodore back in kind, for not simply allowing him to bully her and that indeed Anna's own resilience and being both willing and able to not be cowed by Theodore does much forge and sustain the strong bonds of friendship that develop between both of them). And while for Anna All Year Round, I had granted a full five stars, for Anna on the Farm, my ranking will have to remain at a high three stars, for a fun, entertaining, often delightful but also at times a bit personally frustrating reading experience, with especially how anally retentive and constantly nagging and verbally nasty, chastising Anna's mother acts towards in particular her daughter's tomboy ways and her physical appearance during Anna's parents' surprise visit to the farm leaving more than a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth (mostly because even though Anna's mother's behaviour and sustained constant criticisms of her daughter are obviously considered by both her husband/Anna's father and the aunt and uncle as annoyingly overbearing and somewhat overly exaggerated, no one really seems all that willing to want to tell the mother in no uncertain terms to calm down a trifle and to not act so much like a dictatorial harridan, no one seems even able to actually put down his or her foot and categorically declare that during Anna's week on the farm, she was supposed to have total and utter freedom for a few glorious days from her mother's constant dictates and mandates that her daughter, that Anna supposedly always have to act and physically look like a so-called proper young lady).

Review # 2 was written on 2013-10-29 00:00:00 Hildur Jonsson gr 3-5 152 pgs ~1913, Baltimore/Beltsville, Maryland. 9 year old Anna is bored with being home. It's hot and it seems everyone but her is going on vacation. When her parents offer to let her visit her aunt and uncle's farm in Beltsville for a week, Anna can't wait to go! When she gets there, she discovers that she is not the only guest. A boy named Theodore is also staying there too. Great gentle read. Provides readers with some information about daily life in the city and in the countryside at that time. sequel to Anna All Year Round